JRR Tolkien : “We know what we are, but know not what we may be”.
This sums up a lot of us. The brewing potential that lies within just bursting to come out, but many of us still haven’t yet fully figured exactly where we ultimately will end up being or going or doing. Or we may be constantly evolving or re-inventing ourselves —to reach our best potential selves.
I was a gung-ho and passionate freelance professional voiceover who loved the field and the work, especially during my early years.
And professional voiceovers had been my life for a little over 30 years and counting.
But when it begins to feel like a job or you lose the passion for something that you found exciting, then it loses all its lustre and meaning, which can inevitably lead to burnout. When it feels like a job, it becomes work.
Work becomes routinary and routinary could lead to burnout as it did with me.
I did eventually fall into some extended mid life crisis later on compounded by’ ongoing existential questions about my life’s purpose.
What am I doing here? Where am I heading? Was I just existing? Was there something more? What was my purpose, my why for being in this world?
Eventually my unfulfilled so-so(Same Old Same Old) life became the mother of my reinvention.
My “same old shit” life, was my ‘SOS’ — that I needed a breakthrough to get out of a standstill existence.
So I decided it was time for a life pivot. I wanted to do something disruptive and grand with my uneventful life. I wanted purpose and I wanted to make an impact. I wanted epic.
In order to make an impact on the world, I needed money. I didn’t want money just for the sake of becoming a show-off, or becoming a multi-millionaire for the sake of becoming one and assuming an almost god-like status. Money for me had been a means to an end, a tool. I am not one for flashy sportscars or luxury yachts. I found flashing the bucks abhorring and tasteless. More than being financially wealthy, it was more like financial stability and contributing to causes that meant a great deal to me.
My professional journey fresh out of university started with what I liked to call the two R’s — Radio DJing and Real Estate.
I did real estate in the daytime and I took the night shift at a local rock radio station. About this time too, I also lost some money in some shady network marketing company.
I started exploring the internet at around the time it was young and unexplored – the www(world wide web) was basically the wild wild west.
I was wondering whether there were ways to make money on the internet. Not long after the turn of the century(2000), I discovered shady ‘hyips'(High Yield Investment Programs) which were basically scammy pyramid schemes online. Lost a good amount then but still money I could afford to part with. I’m generally one to make calculated investment risks with my money. Ebay was new at the time and so was Amazon. Facebook was a startup waiting to happen.
Through the years, some online business opportunities caught my attention – stuff like affiliate marketing and drop-shipping. Eventually, as Bezos’ behemoth Amazon became a thing, it’s FBA program evolved into being.
Always wanted to earn some money online. But always found myself wondering how? I mean, where do I start?
I wanted to stake my claim to an internet goldmine, naive as that may seem at that time. I wanted a piece of that pie.
I toyed around with starting off with affiliate marketing but it was generally a big jigsaw puzzle to me. Up to this point, my whole ‘make money online’ journey had consisted of analysis paralysis and shiny object syndrome, buying them all up on jvzoo and clickbank and warrior plus, and leaving my hard drive full with mostly junk purchases.
Fast forward to these past couple of years, I fancied setting up an internet startup. But that too didn’t turn up too well.
Which brings me to today–in this age of coronavirus, about a century after the last pandemic to hit the planet.
The great disruption that was 2020(when the sh*t hit the fan)…
2020 was supposed to be my pivot year and the start of my reinvention.
I was going to seize the year and disrupt my drab and droll existence.
But what I got – along with the entire planet earth – was a tumultuous and disruptive 2020.
And here I am in 2021.
As I write this, the coronavirus pandemic is still a very present scourge worldwide.
I’m trying to make this a productive year and continue with my personal transformation.
Back in 2019, I had just reached the bottom of a valley. I had worked as a freelance voiceover for 30 years. I was passionate and loved what I was doing.
But then I lost it along the way because it began to feel like a job and amounted to trading my time for money.
I was looking for more. I wanted the ‘fire’ of life itself – – a life worth living, where every moment is savoured. Not a life without any signs of life. I didn’t want that.
I didn’t just want to exist, I wanted to live. Existing is far from living and savouring all that life had offer. I wanted to live my life, enjoy my life and wanted a life well- travelled, a life of adventure.
Looking at semi retirement, I had already saved enough from my freelancing practice to embark on a trip of a lifetime.. That was supposed to be in 2020.
Funny thing about me is I dread rabbit holes but I have always wondered where I’d end up if I fell into one. It’s that thirst for adventure, the what-ifs, that calculated risk that, if not taken, condemns me to a life that is droll and unchallenged.
And so, what am I doing now?
I’m learning stuff. I’m learning some skills. I just turned 57.
Current plans include starting my new media platforms.
I want to find my voice in this increasingly troubled world. I’m also venturing into new frontiers like learning copywriting, Amazon FBA, print-on-demand, affiliate marketing and digital product creation with the aim of eventually marketing my own digital products.
Thank you. Thank you so much for stopping by.